


Modern American Bromance

by moricat



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eremin - Freeform, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Friendship, Unresolved Romantic Tension, erearu - Freeform, modern American high school AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 10:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8797711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moricat/pseuds/moricat
Summary: An eremin blurb cuz I wanted to play with their platonic phase in modern American high school AU.~And I just watched 21 jump street which Isayama Sensei directly compared to eremin so there is that also lol Not published on Tumblr yet so this is an AO3 exclusive for now~





	

The daylight of the afternoon burned Armin’s eyes while they slowly readjusted their vision as he walked out of the movie theater. He adjusted his glasses and tried to think of something to do with his hands as he walked with Eren, who gleefully rejoiced and flailed about the movie.

“Oh, man, Armin how great was that movie, though?! Channing Tatum really ROCKED that part, didn’t he?! Great comedic timing, I didn’t know a pretty boy like him could pull off a part like that! He was so badass too, did you see those biceps?–” Eren stopped himself to clear his throat. “I mean, you know, no homo, but wow…”

Armin couldn’t help but snicker at his friend. “It was alright.”

“Hmm, you didn’t like it?” Eren’s smiled dropped.

“Well, I mean, it was good! It’s just- not really my kind of movie, you know?”

Eren seemed genuinely disappointed. “Really?”

“Yeah, I mean the humor just kinda crossed the line of decency in some places for my preference, that’s all.”

“Oh… Well, I really liked the characters.” Eren commented, as he pulled out what was left of his box of skittles from his pocket, smashing a few into his mouth. “They reminded me a lot of us.”

Armin perked up. “Of us?”

Eren’s voice muffled a bit as he stuffed his mouth with a few more skittles. “Yeah. You know, Jonah Hill was the smart one and Channing Tatum was the strong one. And they work together like– what’s that thing you told me about?”

“Hm?”

“The thing that looks like a bowling ball, it’s black and white?”

“Yin and yang?”

“Yeah!” Eren grinned at Armin and turned his head back to the sidewalk ahead, popping another skittle into his mouth. “They work like that. Just like us.”

Armin blushed and smiled to himself. “Hmm.”

Eren munched in silence for a moment, never feeling awkward when he was with Armin but still not appreciating that comfort enough either.

Finally Armin broke the silence. “Do you… think those two were gay?”

Eren turned his head sharply in confusion. “Huh?”

“Well, I mean– they were pretty close, Eren…”

“So? We’re that close.” Eren shrugged, tilting the box up in front of his mouth to let the last few skittles and crumbs fall in, unconsciously hiding a repressed blush in his cheeks.

“But they asked each other to prom, Eren.” He chimed, a light laugh in his voice.

Eren stared down into his box, looking for any sign of more candy. “Yeah, well, it’s called bromance. I’d take you to prom if I needed to.” Still without looking up at Armin, Eren crumpled his box and tossed it towards a garbage can just up ahead. He managed to make the shot and cheered for himself. “Alright! Perfect shot!”

“Well, being this close you wouldn’t have missed it anyhow.”

Eren smiled at him. “Eh. Little victories, my friend. Little victories.”

Armin smiled back. He adored Eren’s optimism.

The two walked on, exchanging thoughts about the movie and repeating jokes from it to each other. Eren took delight in finding every dirty joke he could recite that would make Armin laugh.

Finally they reached the Shiganshina ice cream parlor, an old fashioned former juke joint from the 50’s converted over the years into various sundry things until it became a surprisingly successful ice cream bar; popular among all ages, including teens in the evenings. Eren held the door open for Armin, as he always did without thinking twice about it, and walked him over to their usual table by the entrance.

“You ordering a special today, or are we both just getting the bar?” Eren asked as Armin took his seat.

“I’ll take the bar.”

“Cool, you sit tight, I’ll get yours for you.”

“Thanks.”

Eren walked off to fetch their bowls, performing the duties of a best friend, leaving Armin smiling beside himself, watching him from his seat in the red booth. Eren knew exactly what Armin wanted, he could do this for him with his eyes closed. He couldn’t remember Mikasa’s birthday, and he couldn’t pull off a touch down, but he could always bring Armin his ice cream just the way he liked it.

Eren came back pretty quickly, accompanied by the old sock hop tunes playing on the juke box across from their table, and slid Armin’s bowl to him. His breath hit Armin’s nose as he spoke, smelling heavily of skittles. “One Arlert special, all yours.”

Armin smiled for the sight, perfect as always. A swirl of plain vanilla soft serve, a scoop of matcha, a light drizzle of caramel, 2 strawberries dipped in dark chocolate, and a smothering drizzle of chocolate overall. “Thank you.”

Eren’s tastes were simple enough: a big swirl of chocolate soft serve, a hand full of bonbons, smothered in whipped cream and covered in sprinkles. He rubbed his hands in anticipation.

“Eren, you just ate a whole box of skittles, how could you possibly hope to recover from all this sugar?”

“Hey. This is my Friday out with you and this is my once a week treat. I’ll run it off during practice.” He raised his spoon to toast his friend. “ _Eat-a-dah-key-massoo!_ ”

Armin chuckled. “It’s _‘itadakimasu’_ , you can just treat the _'u’_ as silent.”

Eren wasted no time plunging a big spoonful of his ice cream into his mouth, never minding talking with his mouth full in front of Armin. “Whatever, when we get to Japan, you can do all the talking.”

Armin’s eyes sparkled, but Eren pretended not to notice. “Hmhm. And how’s your German coming along?”

“Bueno.”

“That’s Spanish, Eren.”

“Right, right, I know.” He grinned.

An approaching figure coming towards the door suddenly caught Armin’s eye. Fear took over his expression and _'Oh, no…’_ ran through his mind. The little bell over the door rang as it opened. Armin’s eyes followed the intruder closely.

Eren, who sat across from Armin with his back to the door, concentrated on his own thoughts, still talking with his mouth full and laughing at his own thought. “Maybe when we get to Norway, they can give us some fancy ice cream made from the snow on the alps! Wouldn’t that be nice, Aru?--”

Armin gulped as the intruder suddenly slammed his hand on their table.

Eren glared up to find that his evening out had been interrupted by his least favorite person: Jean Kirschtein.

Armin turned his eyes to his bowl, anything to avoid watching the confrontation build up.

“ _Yaygirl._ How nice to see you, here. Having a little date with your boyfriend, are we?”

“Just a Friday night out with my friend, Jean. But if it’s a boyfriend you’re after, why not just date Marco? He’s about the closest thing you’ve got to a friend anyway.”

Jean quickly grabbed Eren’s shirt and pulled him up to his eye level.

Armin looked up in worry. “Eren!”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean, there, smart ass?…”

“Jean, let him go, please!” Armin cried.

Jean let out a chuckle. “Aw, look what you did! You’re _scaring_ your boyfriend.”

Eren growled, a fist already forming at his side, just trying to decide when to strike.

“Well, maybe if that won’t teach you not to piss me off, this will.” Jean raised his knee, intending to kick him to the ground, but was met with a punch in the face from Eren instead.

Armin whimpered at the sight of Jean’s rising anger, trying to think of what to do. “Ah-a…”

Jean quickly grabbed Eren by the shirt again, slamming him into the table and splattering their ice cream everywhere. Armin closed his eyes, bracing himself for any impact of being there on the sidelines.

Eren tried his best to push Jean off of him, causing a lot of loud friction and ruckus to sound throughout the restaurant. “You rip my shirt and you’re paying for a new one, horse face!” He finally managed to shove him off, right into the juke box, knocking the music off.

Armin sat watching, tears in his eyes, not out of fear for the fight, but out of wishing things didn’t have to be like this for them. That the world of high school didn’t have to be nerds, bullies, and wannabes fighting and clawing just for their right to exist in the world… that the adults and elders around them would do something about it instead of just shrugging it off as child’s play… that he didn’t have to watch Eren get punched in the face again for the thousandth time. What a cruel sick world they lived in…

“Come on now, Eren, you know your little baby faced BF doesn’t like watching you lose, so why even bother to hit back, huh? Why not just take a punch or 2 and be done, like he does!”

“Because you don’t make the rules, asshole!” Eren delivered his final blow before the owner of the shop finally came out to shoo them along.

Being as scared as he was, the owner demanded they leave and banned them from returning, rather than demanding they pay their bill.

Eren grumbled to himself as he stormed out of the store, with Jean leaving in the opposite direction, while Armin remained a bystander frozen in the booth.

Hands still shaking from the sight, Armin quickly dug out the money for their ice cream and told the shop keeper that he was with Eren, and thus he should be banned as well. Not bothering to ask for change, he quickly ran out the door to chase after Eren down the sidewalk into the twilight.

“Hey, Eren, wait!”

Eren paused, his hands in his pockets and anger boiling behind his eyes, as he turned around to find Armin running up to him.

Armin finally reached him and stopped to catch his breath.

“...I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” He lied, blood pouring from his right nostril.

“Oh, Eren, you’re bleeding…”

“Hmm?” Eren wiped his finger under his nose to check Armin’s claim, finding that he was correct. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.”

“Do you think it’s broken?”

“I said I’m fine. Don’t tell my father. We both know there’s nothing he can do about it.”

Armin’s worried expression dropped into a sad and defeated one.

Realizing he was making Armin sad, Eren decided to change the subject. “You know, I was pretending to myself while punching that dickhead, that I was Channing Tatum! It was like _'Pow! I hope the camera got that one right! Bam!’_ You know?”

Armin laughed, bringing a comforting smile back to Eren’s face.

“Really enhanced the fight… Armin, did you ban yourself from that place too?”

“I did.”

“…I’m sorry. You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“It’s fine. I’ve had enough of their dried out toppings anyway.”

Eren couldn’t help but be moved by his loyalty. Deep, deep in the back of his mind, the gears turned, as they always did, with secret unthought ideas of dating Armin one day, running very low on reasons not to... “You know, they’re gonna stop serving matcha without you coming in there to buy it every week.”

Armin shrugged. “Their loss. When we get to Japan, we’ll eat the GOOD stuff.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Their eyes met, a gentle evening breeze blowing through their hair, and suddenly Eren’s view of the world started melting away into nothingness. All he saw was Armin, standing before him, like he was waiting for an answer. Always waiting… Realizing this strange trip he’d been having more and more frequently over the years was happening again, he shook himself back to reality before he fell entranced any deeper. He held out his hand. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

Still sad their evening was cut short, Armin decided to make a suggestion. “Will you spend the night?”

Eren smiled softly under his bloody nose. This cruel world they lived in could screw with them for the rest of their lives, but he vowed to himself that nothing, nothing at all, was going to come between him and his best friend. “…Sure. Can I borrow some clothes or did I leave any from last time?”

Armin took his hand, a completely platonic gesture, but endlessly warm to him nonetheless. “You can borrow mine. What’s mine is yours.”

Eren wrapped his arm around him to bring him closer and walked him down the sidewalk.

Armin brought his arm around Eren in return, glad to finally find something to do with his hands.


End file.
